St. John’s fired coach Norm Roberts on Friday after a 13th-place finish in the Big East and eighth straight season without an NCAA Tournament bid, and the Johnnies have made it clear that they want Long Island native Billy Donovan to help turn around the program.

The Post also writes that St. John’s AD Chris Monasch contacted Florida AD Jeremy Foley for permission to speak directly with Donovan, but Foley said in a text message to the Palm Beach Post that that is “false.” Donovan just finished the third year of a contract extension that pays him close to $3.5 million annually, making him the second-highest paid coach at a public university (behind Kentucky’s John Calipari).

The Post story concludes that Donovan is “unlikely” to head to St. John’s.

UF women’s swimming and diving wins national title in second-closest finish in NCAA history
The Gators entered the final day in fifth place, but climbed to the top with a second- and third-place showing in the 200 backstroke and thirds in platform diving and the 400 freestyle relay. The Gators also took fourth place in the 100 free, a fifth and sixth in the 200 butterfly and a seventh in the 1650 freestyle.

The Gators’ 382 team points was 2.5 more than the 379.5 for California. The closest victory in NCAA history is 1.5 points by Georgia in 2001.

Congrats to the Gators for winning their first national title since 1982, and the first under coach Martyn Wilby. It is the second NCAA title for the Florida athletic program this winter — the men’s indoor track team accomplished the feat last week.

3 freshmen transfer from women’s basketball team

The Gators’ women’s basketball season came to a merciful end over the weekend with a short-handed loss to Miami in the Women’s NIT. The Gators played the game without three freshmen, all of whom transferred from the program in the last week.

Sophomore guard Trumae Lucas told coach Amanda Butler last Saturday that she is leaving the program. Monday and Tuesday, freshmen Christal Caldwell and Tessah Holt did the same.

“It definitely wasn’t a decision that we made together,” Caldwell told the Gainesville Sun. “It was actually a shock when we heard that we had all decided to leave.”

All three were highly-touted recruits out of high school. Lucas was named to the North Carolina High School Assiciation First Team All-State in 2007 and 08. Caldwell was the 2009 Ms. North Carolina Basketball after leading West Charlotte High to the 4A state title. Holt was was named the 2009 Georgia Class AAAA Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year by the Georgia Sports Writers Association and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after leading Fayette County High School to the state title game.

But none of the players had much of an impact this season. Lucas played the most, averaging 5.3 points per game over 16.4 minutes. Holt averaged 1.3 points and 6.6 minutes, and Caldwell averaged 1.9 points and 5.6 minutes.

The Lady Gators finished 15-17, 7-9 SEC a year after advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. According to the Sun, the three players sat in the stands behind the Gators’ bench during their first-round WNIT win over South Florida, but Butler declined to address the transfers other than wishing them well.

Tebow refutes ESPN report, hasn’t decided about NFL Draft

And finally, what’s a good Gator notebook without an item on Tim Tebow?

“I’ve got to figure out what will be more fun for me and best for my family,” Tebow said. “But I have to say I liked what [Cleveland tackle] Joe Thomas did on the day of the draft a couple of years ago — he went fishing with his dad.”

King also writes that Team Tebow is opting for a little privacy in the weeks leading up to the Draft, and predicts Tebow could be picked as high as the late first round.

Most agents are happy to tell you where their client will be visiting before the draft and which teams he’ll be working out for. A top player is usually happy to talk about a conversation he had with Bill Belichick or advice he got on how to throw the ball from Mike Holmgren. Not Tebow’s agent Jimmy Sexton over the weekend. And not Tebow. Both said they’d like to keep the opinions from the teams to themselves, and they’d like to keep which teams are interested to themselves, partly because the teams had requested as much.

Of course, it’s an open secret that Washington coach Mike Shanahan worked out Tebow in Gainesville on Saturday, and that Cleveland, Seattle, New England and Buffalo will either do so or already have. But you won’t get that from the Tebow camp.

What this tells me is that teams interested in Tebow don’t want the other teams interested in Tebow to know how interested they are. If, for instance, the Seahawks want to add Tebow to the Matt Hasselbeck/Charlie Whitehurst stable and they hold the 60th overall pick in Round 2 (which I now think will be too low for Tebow), they don’t want to telegraph their interest in case they plan to try to move into the 40s to get him. With New England having three picks in the second round (44, 47, 53), the Patriots could be in prime position to take Tebow and groom him as either a long-term replacement for Tom Brady (I don’t buy that, with Brady wanting to play eight more years) or as a durable, versatile offensive weapon who could play multiple positions.

I now think Tebow’s going in the 28 to 45 range, to a team willing to be patient with him at quarterback and maybe to allow him to help the team in other ways immediately. That’s how much he helped himself with the aggressive remaking of his throwing motion at his workout Wednesday.

“I got a lot of slack out of my motion,” he told me Sunday night. “I’m holding it higher, releasing it quicker. It’s kind of like in golf, not going back as far on your backswing. I’m not going back as far with my arm, but I don’t feel I’m losing any power or any accuracy when I throw.”